Animal Cruelty

Lock v. Falkenstine, 380 P.2d 278 (Okla. Cr. 1963)

This was a criminal case to prevent chicken fighting contests. The Court quoted none other than Abraham Lincoln, who said, "As long as the Almighty permitted intelligent men, created in his image and likeness, to fight in public and kill each other while the world looks on approvingly, it's not for me to deprive the chickens of the same privilege."

The statute at issue was 21 O.S. 1682, which provides:

"Every person who maliciously, or for any bet, stake, or reward, instigates or encourages any fight between animals, or instigates or encourages any animal to attack, bite, wound or worry another, is guilty of a misdemeanor."

The Court had to determine whether the statute which prohibited people from instigating fights between "animals," included "chickens," which turned upon the issue of whether a chicken is an animal. To resolve the issue, the Court reviewed the Book of Genesis in the Bible. The court also drew from a New Mexico case addressing the same issue:

"Thus we reach the conclusion that the type of cruelty to animal statute we are construing was not passed with the intention of prohibiting such sports as cock fighting. We further believe that, to so construe the statute, would open up many other activities to prosecution, though they are not within its spirit. For example, using live minnows to bait hooks.

"`These statutes are the outgrowth of modern sentiment. They spring originally from tentative efforts of the New England colonies to enforce imperfect but well recognized moral obligations. * * * Society could not long tolerate a system of laws which might drag to the criminal bar every lady who might impale a butterfly, or every man who might drown a litter of kittens.'

The court ruled that the statute was invalid.  Chickens can fight, and kittens can be drowned.